Apple Streusel Muffins

I’m taking baking class at a cooking school here in LA and today the focus was on quick breads. We made scones, carrot cake and muffins. The class is very small and everyone gets to make everything on their own, an advantage that not all schools can offer.

The Apple Streusel Muffins were my favorite of the day. The general reaction was something along the lines of “These are SO good!” They were delicious, very moist and had an extremely tender crumb, thanks in part to the fairly generous amount of oil in the batter. In my first batch, I accidentally added a bit of extra butter to the streusel topping, but clearly that didn’t do anything but help the final product and add more delicious butter flavor. That said, the 2 tbsp called for in the recipe is plenty to help the topping stick together.

Use untoasted walnuts in the topping because toast up enough during baking and might be too crunchy if toasted beforehand. If you don’t want to use nuts, I add about 1/3 cup of all purpose flour in to the topping mixture to give it a more substantial crumb.

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper liners (or use a jumbo muffin tin and line 8 of the cups)
Mix together all dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
Whisk together all wet ingredients in a large bowl, including grated apples. Fold flour mixture into wet ingredients until just combined.
Divide batter evenly into tins and top with streusel mixture.
For regular muffins, bake for 15-18 minutes, until tester comes out clean.
For jumbo muffins, bake for 18-22 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack before serving.

I just rubbed butter into flour with my fingers for the first time not long ago. I started out with my usual pastry blender, but the recipe had mentioned using your hands as an option, so I decided to give it a try. I was surprised at how easy it was and how well it worked! Did they discuss in your class if one method is better than the other?

Cathy – We did discuss it briefly and there doesn’t seem to be an advantage to one or the other for home baking, just a matter of preference. It does seem that it goes faster doing it by hand, which I think is the preference in a professional kitchen.

hi just wanted to say that you have a fantastic blog! chanced upon it through another blog here in sunny Singapore. I tried your apple streusel muffin recipe last night and think it turned out fantastic! to view the picture – come visit my blog at http://www.sweetoven.blogspot.com!i hope you don’t mind that i have added your blog as a link from my site. I will certainly be checking in regularly to see what other scrumptious treats you’ve made!

what kind of apples did you use? these sound heavenly. i’m new to your site and just made your one bowl carrot cake over the weekend for my friend’s birthday. needless to say, the TWO sheets i made were gone in 2 days.

We used a mix of apples for these muffins. The apple type is not as crucial in a muffin as it is in a pie, where it has to stand up to a long baking time. Use any kind of apple you normally enjoy eating. My favorites are Fuji, Pink Lady and Braeburn, although Gala apples are great, too.